Oi!

Something is wrong with me! I haven't been keeping up with posting and reading my normal blogs and websites AT ALL in the past week or two! I must be really busy at work!!! Okay, I am pretty much I suppose.

My latest project's sewing-wise have been purses. Okay, so I bought this sewing book and it probably has about 20 actual project's in it. For purses, there's totes (short, long and med. length), a bag with a zipper and a small bag where the "clutch" is knotted (I call this one a midget bag). I made the midget bag first, because it looked the cutest in the picture. Of course at the time I didn't realize that it was only suppose to be a small "purse" that only fits a wallet and keys. I don't have a picture of this one but the style is super-cute, I will make it again only 3 times bigger!!! Here's the next one I started Sunday but didn't get to finish 'til last night. I changed the handle-style and added a pocket and some buttons for cuteness factor!































Tuesday night my friend Theresa invited me to a free cooking class. Ok apparently it wasn't an actual hands on class, darn. It was at some non-profit health center type place...sorry can't remember the name. We were probably the youngest people there! It was all about eating right and they talk mostly about vegetarian diets. We learned how to make hummus, some pita sandwich thingy, split pea soup, and fruity bread pudding. It was actually all really good, got to taste test it all. Anyways, at least we learned some stuff and got a free recipe book :) And a boost to keep eatin' healthy!

I'll leave you for now, with a picture of my parent's dogs who are at my office right now.

Sew what?

You can always count on me to come up with corny blog titles. Mmmhmm.

Sew! (Ok, I am done). This weekend was my first sewing project since I was probably about 10 years old. After spending a bit too much on supplies, and realizing that fabric stores are BAD (by this i mean, too many cute fabrics!), I was soo ready. I bought a cute reversible apron pattern a few weeks ago, which I'd found online, as well as couple really cute fabrics. I ended up using (for this apron) one of the fabrics i'd bought on ebay and one that I got at JoAnn's. Between learning some basic stuff and putting it all together, ironing, etc., it took about 4-5 hours. It was really more of an advanced sewers project but it turned out pretty well given the circumstances (let's see: running out of thread a few times, the top thread coming out about 5 times, cats stealing pins from my pin cushion). Here are the end results:

Going back, I would probably not do this reversible again, because I could have made two complete aprons! Also, I would have made the halter-top different. It ties around the neck and I will just make it continuous next time, maybe add some buttons so you can adjust it.

Next projects will be some purses, the book I bought has like 3-4 different styles. Woohoo!

I just realized there's a sneaky little cat behind me in the pics :)

Ouch.

I was feeling relatively good this weekend after getting my wisdom tooth pulled on Friday. I had some sleepiness and a little bit of discomfort here and there but no big deal (relatively speaking). That was all good until today when I came back to work! Apparently talking, and I don't even talk THAT much at work, has worn my mouth out and it now hurts more than it did Friday! And of course I didn't bring my medicine with me; I can't wait to get home, take my drugs and lay down. No talking, please.

Also, my kitty got spayed on Thursday. She's been recooperating with me. I'll post a picture of her adorable cone later (which she's managed to pull off her head about 3 times). It's been a big pain in the butt keeping her and the younger cat apart, he likes to play roughly. Lot's of yelling and meowing. What a fun weekend it was ;)

I baked some soft pretzels yesterday! The highlight of my weekend. This is only the second time I've made bread that uses yeast. They turned out yummy but they were pretty ugly (to me) and it was a messy endeavor.

This week, I'm going to try and start sewing. No, I WILL start. I ordered some fabric online and I hope it comes today or tomorrow. Aprons are my first victim. Or am I theirs? :)

<3

So! This week has been great! Last weekend kicked off with pre-Vday baking (with my aunt), and above are all the goodies we made. From left, a giant cookie, brownie, and my chocolate cakes w/raspberry in between the two layers. Last weekend we also spent an evening with Steph and Cale, made some YUMMY pizzas...but Steph already blogged about it so you can read there :) I also made some delicious cookies this week - my aunt sent me a recipe that was supposed to be the famous Smith's cookie recipe, so I tried that out. They did resemble them but I was told they were much better! Hey, i didn't say it..hehe. But i'm willing to share!

Also, a Happy Valentine's Day to everyone...even thought we don't really go all out buying presents or anything it's still fun to spend extra time with the people you love. Chris and I stayed home and cooked a "gourmet" meal together, and it turned out fantabulous. Is that a word? See pics below: a oyster/artichoke/spinach thing with champagne cream, blue cheese crusted filet mignion, and molten chocolate cakes. Needless to say I was in a food coma afterwards.

So other than delicious food and sweets, nothing out of the ordinary. This week of work was really slow for me, just quiet and not a whole lot going on...but it went fast. Anyone watch American Idol? I've never watched it this month, but I have caught every episode so far...I like the Australian guy and the Irish girl, go figure? Well we are headed up to our cabin in the morning - yay for 3 day weekends, not sure how long we'll stay (it gets a tad bit boring there when it's this cold but I heard it's supposed to be relatively nice). I am happy to take Chris' car on it's first long trip :) I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Oh Sunny Day

A slow, Friday afternoon seems like a great time to blog! This is more of an update and less of anything exciting. I'll start off with the most exciting thing: Chris' new car! We bought a new car last weekend (Scion Tc), which is way exciting since we have been sharing one of the past year and a half! I do miss the drive to home and work with him though! So everything else going on just doesn't compare to that excitement :)
I've been doing some baking: I made my first loaf of bread a few weeks ago (wheat) and it turned out pretty good. I made some cupcakes for superbowl, half of them were carrot cake and the other half were mocha - with cream cheese frosting of course! On that same note, I'm excited that Steph and Cale are coming this weekend, we're planning to cook a dinner....homemade pizza maybe? We'll see! (By "we" I mean Steph and me since we know the boys will be playing their computer games).
Right about now I'm so sad that I am stuck in an office, it's soo nice outside!!! Hopefully the weekend will stay like this. I plan on doing lots of cleaning (bought some more Method products last night to get me in the mood), going to the gym and just getting some stuff done! Making the time for all that is so hard it seems, but that's life. Hope everyone has a good weekend :)

PS. I get these Ice Breakers "mints" from Target that are pomegranate lemonade flavor and they are amazing, you must try!

I cannot believe how fast this month has gone. We were up at our cabin last weekend, here are some pictures.

Foxy going crazy over the snowblower!

Chris and me sledding.

Post sledding...haha.

Puzzle that we managed to finished in the 24 hours we were there.

Okay, I wanted to also talk about all the cooking I've been doing. Last weekend I made a salmon cannelloni w/lemon cream sauce, I even made the crepes for it! This weekend I made homemade popcorn on the stove in a big pot. I can't tell you how much better it tasted that the microwavable popcorn...and much healthier! We just put some butter and salt on it, but next time I'll try it with some parmesan cheese. Yummy! Yesterday I had a pot roast going all day in the crock pot, and it turned out reaaallly good. I love crock pots and I need to use ours more. Annnndd I also made a YUMMY dessert yesterday...it's actually for a baking contest (online). Here's a picture:
It's a white chocolate cheesecake filling, graham cracker crust (with some coffee beans mixed in in there), the chocolate topping has some Kahlua in it, and of course raspberries on top. It's really really GOOD! Okay enough of that, I'm just proud of my creations :)

Happy Everything!

First off, it is Chris’ birthday today – he’s 21, wooohoo!!! So a very happy birthday to him! He can finally go buy me…errr, himself drinks! We are going to the Elephant Bar tonight to celebrate, yummy! If I had a scanner I would love to post some baby pics his grandma just sent us…I know he would just LOVE that! :)

I haven’t updated in a while so here goes.

Christmas: Christmas was awesome! It is definitely my favorite holiday; I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting people presents, baking, looking at Christmas lights, and spending time with family and friends. My baking this year included truffles, sugar cookies, peanut butter balls, eggnog cupcakes, and peppermint chocolate cheesecake bars. Oh and I made some peanut butter fudge but it didn’t turn out right :( Other than that we had our usual family get-togethers: x-mas eve dinner at my dad’s parent’s (polish food...yum), x-mas morning at my parents, x-mas day at my aunt’s, and we had another get-together a few days earlier with my mom’s family because everyone was going out of town. A few of my favorite gifts were a memory foam mattress topper (heavenly), a very nice GPS, and of course everything from Chris (Kurv vacuum)! He got some good presents too! I got to see a few friends that I hardly get to see, so that was nice too!

After Christmas…well it was basically a blur. We both took off that week from work and Chris’ cousin and his girlfriend came from Michigan to visit. Nothing really went as planned, to say the least. But it was still a good visit, a ton of driving on my part but that was okay since we got to put our GPS to use! New Years was pretty low-key, but we spent a few hours at a party at my parent’s house. What a busy week.

I don’t make resolutions for the New Year, but I always tend to think about things I want to do or make better. I hope I come here and read these things throughout the year :)

• Take more pictures.
• Read more.
• Cook for people more often (other than Chris :P).
• Save money.
• Learn patience.
• Uhm a few other things I may get in trouble for posting :O Haha!